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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  April 26, 2014 2:00pm-3:01pm PDT

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an and a half we just launched on our website, ten initiativs s referrableuati revolutionizing health care. time now to get you back into the cnn "newsroom" with don lemon. top of the hour. i am don lemon. you are in the cnn newsroom. we are following a developing story that connects american sports, society and culture. the national basketball association, the nba, says it is now investigating recorded remarks allegedly made by l.a. clippers owner donald sterling. obtained by the website tmz include a voice disparaging african-americans and telling his girlfriend to stop bringing black people to clippers' games.
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among the comments sterling is allegedly heard telling his girlfriend, it bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you are associating with black people. do you have to? also, you can sleep with black people. you can bring them in. you can do whatever you want. the little i ask you is not to promote it on that, and not to bring them to my games. also singles out the basketball hall of famer los angeles legend magic johnson as one person in particular he doesn't want to see. magic johnson has responded on twitter. a lot. he went there. and in his words he said, quote, lanchts clippers' donald sterling's comments about african-americans are a black eye for the nba. i feel sorry for my friends, coach doc rivers and chris paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about african-americans. i would add for that, it's a black mark for america as well.
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my quote, not his. not the furs time sterling has found himself in the middle of a controversy, being sued by the federal government over his treatment of minorities who wanted to lease his rental properties and also sued by former nba legend and clippers' executive elgin baylor for discrimination. cnn commentator and associate professor at columbia university. this guy is an idiot, mark. >> a complete idiot and also a racist. as much as we talk about race and have interesting and complicated conversations about race, i rarely call someone a racist. given his history, the housing discrimination, the words we have him allegedly on tape saying, it is clear to me he is the one who simply doesn't like or care for black people unless, of course, they're dribbling a bask ball or apparently sleep --
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>> i was dumbfounded that he was saying this to someone who is part black and he is obviously sleeping with. none of what he said made any sense. in fact, it harkins to -- i felt like i was listening to someone from the 1930s, '4 0s or '50s. it's ridiculous. >> tea not surprising. he is re-enacting a very ancient american ritual of white people hating and disparaging black bodies at the same time they're making extreme wealth out of them. slavery. we have sexual encounters with women, we exploit their bodies. all this stuff is normal. for him to have a black girlfriend, i'm not surprised. to work around black players and use their labor for money, i'm not surprised. >> the guy can date whoever he wants, right? just to hear what he said -- no one is saying about interracial -- i don't want people to misconstrue what you're saying.
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he can date interracially. that's not the issue. >> i don't care if he dates interracially. some people would be surprised that he dates interracially and still doesn't want black people at the game. >> oh, no, it doesn't make you smarter or more immune to it because you don't date someone of your race. i want you to listen to charles barkley and shaquille o'neal responding to this earlier. listen. >> it's one thing to say something that's controversial but it's another thing to say something that's very repugnant. the question is now, should this guy continue being an owner? >> he has to be suspended. the problem i have with it, if somebody wants to be a racist, that's all right. that's their thing. but when you're in a position of power and you can take jobs and economic opportunity from people, that's what crosses the line. but we cannot have an nba owner
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discriminating against a league that -- we're a black league, ernie. we are a black league. i don't know the number but i would probably say 80% of our players are black. >> charles barkley is going to call me. i can't wait to talk to charles on the air. he is going to call me just as soon as he gets a moment. this will be a big test. what charles says is absolutely right, mark. it is a black league. >> yeah. >> i mean, does this guy not look around and see who is in the stadium? for him to say i don't want you to bring any black people to the game, i don't want you to -- i mean -- okay. anyway, this is going to be a good test for -- >> black people at the game. he doesn't want black people near his girlfriend. >> he's wearing blinders in the stadium. >> the girlfriend, latina/wife who is not tainted by black people. >> that's what he said. that's who you're supposed to be. this will be a big test for the new commissioner. >> absolutely. the new commissioner has to make
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a decision about what they want to do. walk a fine line because people will say that you all can't get rid of a guy simply because of what he believes or even what he says in a private conversation. he has the right to believe and say what he wants. that's true. charles barkley raised a powerful point here. it's not your beliefs it's how you make your beliefs policy. he has a history of discriminating. he had to settle almost $3 million because he discriminated people based on race and ethnicity. elgin baylor filed a complaint because he was the lowest gm in the league after working 19 years. it's policy. i don't care what donald sterling thinks. i care about how he acts. >> right. again, this is all according to tmz and as soon as we get more information about this audio, we're trying to get it so that you can hear it. mark, can i read something to you? this is magic, who is revered by everyone, someone who helps out many communities, someone who is an icon when it comes to saving
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lives for hiv and aids. put his personal life and his reputation on the line to come out and get people to get tested. he didn't have to tell the world he was hiv positive. this guy is a trailblazer, an icon and an amazing person. and he doesn't want his girlfriend take iing a picture h him. so, magic johnson is upset, obviously, and went on twitter and said tmz reported this morning that clippers' owner donald sterling doesn't want me or other african-americans to come to the clippers games. that was one tweet. twitter feed and his wife is cookie. and i will never go to a clipper's game again as long as donald sterling is the owner. i feel sorry for my friends coach doc rivers and chris paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about african-americans and then he says it's comments are a black eye for the nba and i went on and added a black eye for
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america because it's ridiculous. when someone like magic johnson says, mark, cookie and i will never go to a clippers' game again as long as donald sterling is an owner, that speaks volumes. a lot of people will probably follow his lead. you're in trouble. >> absolutely. interesting time because the clippers are at their best state in terms of performance in record and talent. probably in decades, for sure. so this is a time when lots of attention is being placed on the clippers because doc rivers was there, chris paul was there. the clippers team might be good but i'm not giving another dollar to an organization that has these kinds of principles at the highest level. i hope fans don't go there. i hope free agents run from there. i hope players have the courage to stand up and say this is wrong and the league has to be responsible and not put individual players in a position where they have to make the
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tough decision. instead, the league needs to say we can't have an owner who is not only racist, but who has a history of doing things as a matter of policy that are discriminatory. this was a private conversation. if that's what he thinks and how he acts, fans, players, everyone should run from this team and from this guy. >> it's going to be a real test -- it's going to be really interesting to see what happens. marc lamont hill, don't go anywhere. if you're just tuning in, a story that's shocking the country and the world right now. the owner of the l.a. clippers accused of making racist remarks allegedly on tape about not wanting black people to go to his games and not wanting his girlfriend to be with black people on social media, on instagram. we're following this story for you. i've been texting with charles barkley, who promises to call in
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as soon as he gets off the air and has a minute. we'll be listening and hearing to charles barkley in this hour. captain: when i'm looking for a hotel with a wet pool, i go to hotels.com. you can get up to 50% off with their private sales. that man's privates are no longer private. ♪ ♪ abe! get in! punch it! let quicken loans help you save your money. with a mortgage that's engineered to amaze! thanks, g.
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it's going to be a rough weekend weatherwise for most of the country east of the rockies. powerful storms are brewing in the plains all the way to texas. separate weather system sent tornados into north carolina and southern virginia late yesterday. several homes, churches and schools were damaged and a few people have minor injuries. multiple tornadoes have been confirmed touching down in north carolina. jennifer gray is watching had line of storms. jennifer, the biggest risk right now, where? >> is basically southern oklahoma and north texas. doesn't look like a whole lot's going on right now, but i assure you, it has been heating up all day. we're starting to see some assu showers pop up. in a matter of hours these could be turning severe. that's what we'll watch over the next couple of days.
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all the ingredients are in place to produce severe weather in these powerful storms will march across the country today, tomorrow, monday, even into tuesday. and these are also going to be slow movers. so, we're going to talk about a possible flooding potential as well. the threat for today, anywhere from north texas all the way up through nebraska. we're talking about large hail and damaging winds. as we go into tomorrow, the severe threat ramps up quite a bit in the arklatex area, shreveport, little rock, memphis. we could see large tornadoes as we go through tomorrow into monday, the severe weather threat will still remain for the mississippi river valley. still including memphis, jackson, mississippi, and then the heavy rain component, don, as we go through the next two or three days. we could see two to four inches of rain up in the north, including the ohio valley and even for the southeast. tuesday through thursday timeframe. we are going to see quite a bit of rain as well. so, this is the time of year we start to see the tornado threat
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ramp up. 80 normally in march. 155 tornadoes normally in april. don, this is that season. we've got to be on the lookout and be prepared for the next couple of days sbl be prepared for the possibility of tornadoes and, for sure, you're going to get wet. >> yes. >> thank you, jennifer gray. we appreciate that. i want to check some news for you. overseas now, president barack obama is in the capital of malaysia right now, kuala lumpur. third stop in a week-long swing through asia, trade and security issues to talk about. but there's also the work to find malaysia airlines flight 370 that's been missing for search weeks now. erin mcpike at the white house. erin, what's the president saying about the search? >> reporter: well, don, it has come up, certainly, in his travels in malaysia. and he offered an interview to the malaysian newspaper "the star" yesterday and made some comments about that there, offering his condolences, of course, to the malaysian people about their loss but also made important point bts help that the u.s. has provided that country. i want to read some of those
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comments to you now. ace friend and partner of malaysia, the united states was one of the first countries to join in the search for the missing plane. u.s. navy ships, aircraft and personnel remain on the scene on the search. our government is working closely with malaysia on the investigation as to what caused the plane to disappear. we will continue to assist in the search and investigation. that's an important point. president obama has committed to the search throughout this process. a state dinner, the president didn't mention the missing plane there. however, the. >> we wish to express the utmost gratitude for the u.s.'s
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unwavering support and cooperation. >> he went on to say that it exemplifies the strong bond between the two countries. >> erin mcpi pike at the white house, thank you very much. demanding answers from the malaysian government. malaysians have delayed releasing their preliminary report. what's the hold up? our experts will discuss it, next. ♪
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malaysia airlines flight 370 disappeared seven weeks ago, triggering a massive hunt for any trace of the missing jet. the search has involved seven countries, by air and by sea even by space. not a single piece of debris has showed up. family members are trapped in limbo waiting for any word of their loved ones. >> translator: we don't know at this point whether they're alive or dead. >> no rock solid clues, no suspects. families have slammed malaysian's handling of the investigation. >> the things we did wrong,
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things that we didn't do too well. >> malaysian's prime minister says the preliminary report on flight 370 will be released next week. it won't answer the question of what happened to the 239 people on board that flight. >> the most important information that they want and sadly the one that we cannot provide is where is the plane. >> these are the faces of the people who were on flight 370. husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, grandparents. and we are still wondering what happened to each and every one of them. we're going to dig a little deeper now into the mystery and the handling of this investigation. michael kay, former pilot with the british military. aviation analyst, former inspector general for the department of transportation and national security analyst bob bear.
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to you first, malaysia has not ruled out any passengers or crew members from being involved in the disappearance of flight 370. do you find that odd? >> i think that odd. you would think by now they would have gone to the databases and identified potential suspects. it's not something that would be kept secret for long. as far as i've seen, all these people are fairly clean. there's nobody obviously that would have taken that airplane, which i find extremely odd. >> mary, what was the biggest mistake in handling of the disappearance of flight 370? you've been watching the story as closely as anyone. >> well, i think the problems on the radar data and the repeated and widely variant altitude and heading data that they had at first and not really pinning down what happened to the flight in that first hour and a half, i think that was the biggest mistake. from then on, we couldn't really get a good heading except for the inmarsat data.
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>> michael kay, let's go back a few weeks, malaysia took days to reveal flight 370 showed up on their radar. what does that tell you about malaysia's military? >> key conundrum for the prime minister, don, revealing potential holes in his national security defense. does he go and tell the world that effectively he hasn't seen anything, an unidentified radar blip, no ir 5 flight plan, no routine airways traffic, or does he tell the world that the ministry did see something however they deemed it not serious enough to go and investigator deemed not hostile, as the prime minister said. he clearly went for the latter. but in doing so, i think he has exposed a real weakness within his air defense. and i think that is telling the world there is a problem here with malaysia. and that is sensitive.
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malaysia is under the microscope at the moment. he's trying to avoid any future problems. >> unwittingly, in some ways, maybe making it worse, by revealing that there are some holes in their radar. >> his options weren't great. if he would have come out to the the world and said nothing was seen, that's an even bigger hole. it's kind of a lose/lose. >> let's talk about the families, mary schiavo. they're in pain. they're in agony. what would you recommend that malaysia do first, going forward in this investigation, especially when it comes to the families? >> well, i think what they need to do, just to help these poor families get through all this, they need to set up private, daily, if need be, but at least weekly briefings, set them up in several locations. but they cannot miss them anymore. they can't not show up, they can't cancel them and just the constant briefing of these families. and if they do it in private, as the ntsb does, they don't have
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to worry about -- i know they're managing their image but they don't have to worry about the media being there. from here on out they have to be good stewards of information for those families. they've really been through the wringer. it's just unacceptable. >> what do you want to see in this report? >> i would like to see what the radar images showed. by now the u.s. military has taken a look at them because, you know, after almost two months, it's clear that this plane went down in the ocean. you don't hide an airplane for all this time, hijack it or something. so, you know, that's the best evidence we have. and i hope the u.s. military is looking at this stuff and gets a better grasp of where that plane went. >> michael kay is sitting next to me, shaking his head. not going to happen, michael? >> no. don, look, the preliminary report will give you a few basic facts. i think we know there's a recommendation about real-time tracking of airplanes. potentially, it's not going to give you conclusions, it's not going to give you analysis. it's not going to give you a probable cause. i would be very surprised if it
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contained anything on the inmarsat data. >> you think it's fairly generic? is this going to be sort of -- >> let say there was something in there about radar. i think we've learned to take it with a pinch of salt. so much inconsistency within the data and the information that, again, you know, just -- it's not credible. >> thank you very much. >> we're not getting the whole story. that's the problem. >> right. >> mark baer, michael kay, mary schiavo, thank you. appreciate all of you. the lead story of this hour, owner of the clippers in hot water for allegedly making racist remarks. the comments have ignited a firestorm on social media and really around the world. far beyond social media. we'll go there with our rachel nichols, next. ♪
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now you could have done it twice. this is awkward. go to comcastbusiness.com/ checkyourspeed. if we can't offer faster speeds or save you money we'll give you $150. comcast business built for business. okay. so, let's talk more about our developing story right now. nba says it is investigating recorded remarks allegedly made by l.a. clippers owner. include a voice disparaging african-americans and telling his girlfriend to stop bringing black people to the games. stop bringing black people to the games. among the comments, allegedly heard him telling his girlfriend regarding her use of social
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media it bother mees that you're broadcasting that you're associating with black people. can you sleep with black people. you can bring them in. you can do whatever you want. the little i ask you is not to promote it on that and not to bring them to my games. it also singles out basketball hall of famer and legend magic johnson as one person in particular that he does not want to see. magic johnson has responded on twitter, in his words, quote, donald sterling's comments about african-americans are a black eye for the nba. i feel sorry for my friends coach doc rivers and chris paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about african-americans. rachel nichols is here from cnn sports. rachel has been doing some investigating. also been talking about people in the league. and at a game down in atlanta. what are people saying about donald sterling, rachel? >> a lot of people around the nba are horrified. a lot of people around the nba are unfortunately not surprised because we have seen a record in
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the past from donald sterling of racial discrimination, of racial comments. remember, this is a guy who, two separate times, settled court cases with the u.s. justice department. they're not small settlements. i'm talking about huge, in one case record settlements about racial discrimination. he was accused of discriminating against blacks. he was accused of discriminating against hispanics, against koreans. he is, unfortunately, an equal opportunity racist, it seems. certainly from the fact that he has gone and settled these cases as opposed to fighting them all the way through in court. there have been more lawsuits. long-time general manager elgin baylore sued sterling and that suit was eventually rejected on some other reasons but one of the thing that is came out during that lawsuit was that baylor alleged that sterling made the comment that, quote, he had tried to discriminate against having black people in the apartments that he owned because -- and i want to get this quote exactly right -- he goes because, quote, black
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tenants smell and attract vermin. this was an allegation but came from a respected gmelgin baylor. long history here with donald sterling so far has skated past it with the nba. you have to think that he is not going to skate this time. adam silver, who just took office this past february is expected to speak later tonight at the memphis grizzlies basketball game. there will be a lot of people waiting to hear what he has to say. >> oh, yeah. and we will be one of them. why is this guy still an owner now? why hasn't he face ned sort of sanction or any sort of disciplining from the nba? >> there's been a lot of questions about that for a long time. and, look, we know across sports that owners are treated differently than players and executives. if a player or executive or someone in a front office, a coach had this kind of history and track record, you would imagine that they would have been disciplined or perhaps as the league, owners in all sports
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get a little bit of a different pass. that being said, again, you have to wonder if that's going to happen this time. adam silver can't unilaterally remove donald sterling or separate him from his team. that will have to take some of the other nba owners around the league also taking action. there is a procedure for it. and while it is long and complicated, it is one that can happen. and there is already starting to be a bit of a push for that. we've seen different owners around the league make different comments today. on one hand you've had dallas mavericks owner mark cuban who has declined to talk about it, saying during the playoffs is not the place or time to talk about something like this. that got a pretty negative reaction, as you would imagine. miami heat owner mickey aronson said he wanted to be cautious as the league is still investigating whether or not, in fact, it is sterling's voice on the comments. if it is, it's disgusting and alcohol needs to be taken. >> do you have a statement from the players? >> i don't.
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wi why don't you give ait a read? >> this is a very serious issue we will address aggressively, chris paul, point guard. and the president. he says, we have asked mayor kevin johnson to expand his responsibilities to determine our response and next steps as players we owe it to our teams and our fans to keep our focus on our games, the playoffs and the drive to the finals. so, i want to talk about the impact on the clippers. obviously, it had a big impact on the league. this will be game changing. i didn't mean that as a pun but this will be game changing for the league. >> it does have an impact on the clippers. chris paul, who plays for the clippers and also the president of the players association, puts him in an incredibly awkward position. doc rivers, one of the most respected coaches in the nba, one of the smartest coaches in the nba, puts him in an incredibly awkward position. these guys can't be happy having play for an owner and coach for
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an owner who reportedly feels this way. they are now in a position of having to win a playoff game for him but also the fans of l.a., the loyal people who have cheered for them, worked for them. there's been some conversation, should people boycott the clippers? magic johnson certainly has said hey, i don't want to ever go to another clippers game as long as donald sterling is an owner. if it is sterling's voice on that tape, you can certainly understand why he would feel that way. but if you're one of the players who needs that support from the fans, who says, hey, i don't necessarily like what this guy is -- more than you do. but i want to go out and succeed, to spite him. it puts everyone in a terrible position and you feel for them. you feel for clippers fans, chris paul and doc rivers, who wants to have to deal with this when you're trying to win a playoff game? and who wants to feel that the person you work for might feel this way about you? it's awful. >> it's ridiculous and really from a time gone by, someone who is out of touch. thank you very much. we appreciate that, rachel nichols. we'll see you back here.
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cattle rancher has ignited the proverbial political firestorm, battle with the federal government over grazing
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rights and unleashing a string of insensitive and racist remarks, in describing african-americans to reporters, bundy said this. this is a quote. they abort their young children, put their young men in jail because they never learn houd to pick cotton and often wondered are they better off as slaves picking cotton and have iing a family life and doing things or are they better off under government subsidy? really? okay. bundy is supported with supporters like fox news host sean hannity distancing themselves from his comments. some see it as a bigger issue. why were so many eager to support a guy who is violating federal law? why were so many so quick to rally around him? crystal white joins me, conservative writer, blger and
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owner of baker wright pr group. crystal, we talk about conservative things a lot on this show. i do have to say that, you know, i've been watching you from home over the past couple of days and you have been very transparent and very authentic in what you think and how poorly you think many conservatives, not all -- some conservatives, i should say, handle this. >> yes. to me, the whole incident has shown their weakness which is racial insensitivity and the party is talking out of both sides of its mouth. it has a pattern of doing this. as you point out, and as i said yesterday on cnn, the party should have never embraced him to begin with. he was breaking our laws. he wasn't abiding by the constitution and republicans talk all the time, as well as conservatives, about how we should be a land of laws. we talk about immigration. correct?
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and then to add insult to injury, you know, all the republicans and conservatives now are telling me, crystal, he didn't really mean that. you're misrepresenting it. when the party prominent conservatives and republicans embraced him, it becomes a huge liability when mr. bundy is then reveal revealed to be a raging racist at a time when many of those same republicans are trying to build bridges to new voters. as a black woman and a conservative, i am tired of being dismissed and i am tired and sick of the racial insensitivity my brethren show to black americans. >> thank you. very well said. as i said, you've been very authentic and transparent about it. and i like that. my question is, as well, crystal, i've been on the plane story. that's been my focus. i haven't had a chance to delve into other stories.
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i sat back and watched this cliven bundy story and was surprise bid people who were supporting him because there isn't that support for someone who evades taxes. >> right. >> people who don't pay their taxes. >> right. >> these are laws, federal and state laws. he hadn't paid. what happens if you don't pay your taxes? the government seizes your assets. if you don't pay your fees, the government will seize your assets. i didn't understand this story and i don't understand the support. >> well, like you, i never understood it either because if i don't pay my taxes, which i would love not to do, don, as you point out. i'm going to have my wages garnished. i'm going to have serious consequences. what we need to remember is cliven bundy decided arbitrarily he didn't like the way the laws were being applied by the bureau of land management with respect to his cattle and they wanted to limit the area where his cattle could graze. so he just said in 1993 he wasn't going to pay his -- i think it's leasing fees, the fees associated with the grazing and owes over $1 million.
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i have no sympathy for him. you know i'm about limited government. but even more so than that, i talk a lot about the fact that we should find strength from our history in slavery. conservatives always tell me that i need to get over slavery. isn't it funny that the same conservatives telling me and other others to get over slavery are supporting a man who said black people would be better off cotton picking because their -- i can tell mr. bundy that there's no way, even for blacks who have been on welfare, they have their freedom and can always get off welfare. you could never really free yourself of slavery. >> no. >> let's think about that. >> crystal, i want you to come back and talk about this. unfortunately we have a lot of breaking news. i hope that conservatives and that people in the republican party will heed your words. you have been a staunch supporter and defender of the gop on many occasions. but on this one, i think you have a unique perspective and i hope they follow your lead. >> thanks, don. >> thank you.
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>> the situation in ukraine now continues to unravel. now international monitors sent in to the country to uphold a peace deal of sorts are being held captive. next, ukrainian prime minister's strong words for russia. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know that game show hosts should only host game shows? samantha, do you take kevin as your lawfully wedded husband... or would you rather have a new caaaaaar!!!!
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life. but people here are having crisis after crisis. i believe that the violence in this city and grief are directly connected. >> i feel sad that somebody hurt my dad. >> a child's grief can be very different from adults. they can easily lose their identity and their security. and that shift can be very dangerous. >> there you go. write your feelings. how are you feeling today? >> our program provides that safe place for a child to recover. >> hello. how are you doing? >> our volunteers help the children explore their feelings. why did you choose red? >> i was angry when my dad passed away. >> and talk about healthy ways of coping. >> get that anger out! >> we teach our children that it's okay to cry. >> his brother died so he's feeling very, very sad.
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ukraine now. a phone call between russia's foreign minister and secretary of state john kerry. russia stressed ukraine must seize military operations in the eastern part of the country. those groups have seized land and government buildings and refuse to leave. let's go to our panel now michael kay and bob bayer. the whole function, bob, is to hammer out this peace deal and
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they get captured. how should the international community respond to this? >> i can see the hand in russia in all of this. the ukraine was never given by russia in 1991. it was continued close relations with the russians. i think in the eastern part of the country you have almost definitely septznotes and kgw agents. i think they were behind this and hard to pin down. until putin comes around and gives up eastern ukraine we are going to have problems for a very long time. >> we could see more sanctions as early is as monday. president obama just said he's, quote, keeping some arrows in his quiver in the event we see further detdeteriorations. what is left, michael kay? >> i think economic sanctions have always been a long-term peace. i think that is where they should be directed.
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i think what we are seeing at the moment with this posturing by putin is a symptom of a broader problem. not problem that is polarization within the country. you got half the country that wants to get closer to the eu and half the country that wants to remain close to putin. i think what putin's big worry is here if a government that comes in is western facing and accepts an imf package so you got those three together, with that comes measures and next on that is discussions on nato. i think what is worrying putin. the other bit as well is along with the a-package from the eu becomes -- comes awe sistusteri. how is that playing out in the long-term in terms of the internal stability of the civil population within the country? let's go back to greece on the a-package that was given to greece that came with serious amounts of austerity.
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huge popular unrest. the political management within a country changed on a monthly basis. >> yeah. >> i have to ask you a similar question, bob. anything that putin will be afraid of that will make hick reconsider anything? >> well, i think russia is already suffering from sanctions. interest rates have gone up. there is capital plight. he doesn't seem to care at at this point. he is diven by russian nationalism which is strong and never gone away. he is getting a lot of popular support in russia. i think he is prepared to suffer the economic consequences in order to keep nato out of the ukraine or a u.s. dictated solution. >> there is some strange timing to, you know, that the ukraine prime minister met with the pope. should we read anything into this timing, michael? >> look. i think the government and ukraine, at the moment, it's an interim government. so whatever the interim government does is going to be replaced by something and i go back to my original point is
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that, you know, the west really needs to have a bigger strategic plan on how it aids ukraine in getting over that potential instability between the western side and the eastern side because i think the last thing we would want to anticipate is a splitting of the country. i think that could be a real nightmare for a whole plethora of reasons. i think, yes, the interim government can pursue conversations with the pope, but the real thing is getting fair and democratic elections on the table. getting a government that is instilled through the acquiescence of the whole plort of the country without too much intervention from putin and the west and go from there. >> i appreciate your interest on this subject, michael and bob. the owner of the clippers accused of making racist remarks allegedly caught in audiotape in a voice recording. now there are calls for him to step down and calls for
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boycotting the clippers. the league is responding. they say they are investigating. what happens next? this is a big concern that goes far beyond the nba and we are discussing it at the top of the hour. a few minutes away. don't go anywhere. you can get up to 50% off with their private sales. that man's privates are no longer private. say "hi" rudy. [ barks ] [ chuckles ] i'd do anything to keep this guy happy and healthy. that's why i'm so excited about these new milk-bone brushing chews. whoa, i'm not the only one. it's a brilliant new way to take care of his teeth. clinically proven as effective as brushing. ok, here you go. have you ever seen a dog brush his own teeth? the twist and nub design cleans all the way down to the gum line, even reaching the back teeth. they taste like a treat, but they clean like a toothbrush. nothing says you care like a milk-bone brushing chew. [ barks ]
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hello, everyone. don lemon. thank you for joining us. sit down and take a seat because we are going to have a really great conversation for you that is worth discussing, not only here on cnn, but in your own household with your friends around the dinner table, whatever you are doing this evening and beyond at work. we are beginning a story that reaches beyond its origin in the world of sports and it gets to the heart of who we are as a country. the nba has announced that it is investigating recorded remarks allegedly made by l.a.